eBay-Related Scam Costs Orange County Businessman $18.2 Million

An Orange County businessman who operated an eBay-related scam that nabbed $45 million from more than 500,000 consumers nationwide learned his fate this week inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana.

Charles Gugliuzza, the onetime president of Commerce Planet, had hoped to escape the ire of U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J.Carney, but that didn't happen.

Carney issued a brutal final judgement and permanent injunction against Gugliuzza.

The judge concluded that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proved its case that Gugliuzza's operations, including OnlineSupplier, had from 2005 to 2008 used deceptive practices to lure consumers into a free "Online Auction Starter Kit" program to help sell products on eBay.

Angry consumers later discovered that the kit really wasn't free. Gugliuzza had secretly enrolled them in a monthly, credit card payment plan for the program.

Carney found Gugliuzza personally liable for the con game and ordered him to pay a whopping $18.2 million fine as well as submit himself for the next 20 years to a rigorous, record keeping regime for FTC inspections of his future business activities.

The fine will go to the FTC to help fund future investigations into the practices of other white collar criminals.

One of Gugliuzza's defense lawyers is Wayne R. Gross, the former head of the U.S. Attorney's office in Santa Ana. Gross, who has made no secret of his desire to become a judge, was friends with Mike Carona, our disgraced, corrupt ex-sheriff and now federal inmate. Oddly, Gross--now with Greenberg Traurig LLP in Irvine--continued to associate with Carona while other federal law enforcement officials built their corruption case.

Gross, who has been roommates with Orange County Register columnist Frank Mickadeit, had argued that the FTC's case against Gugliuzza was sloppy and unwarranted.

R. Scott Moxley’s award-winning investigative journalism has touched nerves for two decades. An angry congressman threatened to break Moxley’s knee caps. A dirty sheriff promised his critical reporting was irrelevant and then landed in prison. Corporate crooks won’t take his calls. Murderous gangsters mad-dogged him in court. The U.S. House of Representatives debated his work. Pusillanimous cops have left hostile messages using fake names. Federal prosecutors credited his stories for the arrest of a doctor who sold fake medicine to dying patients. And a frantic state legislator literally caught sleeping with lobbyists sprinted down state capital hallways to evade his questions in Sacramento.